Shang-Chi Marvel Simu Liu Marvel Studios

Shang-Chi is number ONE at the box-office for the THIRD week in a row! It's made over $300 MILLION worldwide. What a feat in this covid era for any movie, let alone an ASIAN-LED one!

I personally am feeling so inspired from watching Shang-Chi!! I don’t think I’ve ever understood what (Asian) representation feels like until I watched this movie. Being born in and raised in the US, as an Asian-American, I didn’t feel like I belonged. I spent a lot of my childhood living a double life – quiet and reserved at school, and felt much more at home in a Chinese school.

I've trained in Wushu since I was 7 but it wasn’t until I watched Mulan that I got the courage to show people who I really was. I never want my children to feel that way! I love how Shang-Chi the movie represented all of those groups, North American-born Chinese, overseas Chinese, and Asian immigrants as a whole. The characters were so relatable – from the nods to taking off our shoes, to getting scolded about getting married to our most filial friends, to getting scolded about our job choices – and it showed how there is actually someone like me in the writers’ room.

Cheers also for including Indian Americans as Asian-Americans because they are. The action scenes were phenomenal and you could tell the cast really poured their heart into training and preparing for performance. And finally, in the end credits, seeing the first Asian superhero actually stand beside Mr. Wong, Captain Marvel and Dr. Bruce Banner aka The Hulk, just made me realize that, oh man, this is real. This actually happened. Let’s keep these Asian-led blockbusters coming!!

尚氣與十環傳奇已經連續三週票房第一！全球票房收入超過 3 億美元。在新冠病毒的時間點還能有這樣的票房對任何電影來說都是一項壯舉，更不用說是以亞洲文化為主題電影了！

尚氣這部電影讓我受到了很多啟發！！在我看了這部電影之前，我感覺我從來都不知道（亞洲）被再現在大螢幕上的感覺。我在美國出生和長大，作為亞裔美國人，我時常找不到歸屬感。我的童年有很大部分時間都過著雙重生活——在學校安靜又拘謹，而到了中文學校才有家的感覺。我從 7 歲開始練習武術，但直到看到《花木蘭》，我才鼓起勇氣向其他人展現真正的自我。我不希望我的孩子在未來也有這樣的經歷！我喜歡這部電影《尚氣》的原因不只是因為好看，它也代表了所有以下這些群體，北美出生的華人、海外華人和整個亞洲移民。這些角色是如此的具有象徵意義，可以產生共鳴——從點頭到脫鞋、因為嫁給我們最孝順的朋友而被責罵、甚至是被質疑我們的工作選擇——這看得出編劇裡居然也有像我這樣的人，我也為電影將印度裔美國人納入亞裔美國人的一員感到開心。動作場面真的非常壯觀！你可以看出演員們真的全身心地投入到訓練和準備中。最後，可以看到第一個亞洲超級英雄站在王先生、驚奇隊長和布班納博士（綠巨人）旁邊，讓我意識到，天啊，這是真的嗎？我不是在做夢吧。我相信未來一定有更多亞洲文化主導題材的電影！！！

She's mad I scolded her for being mean to dudu~
她不開心因為我叫她不要欺妹妹（嘟嘟）🤣

#NFTsummer A few weeks ago, we interviewed Xixi Huang (AW#17) in Mandarin and as the AppWorks Fellow who helps us out on the blockchain side, Xixi has a lot of ideas that are worth sharing to a bigger audience. Here's his interview in English:

西西 (Xixi) 黃士晉 is an AppWorks #17 alumni and co-founder of Rydeit. His mission is to bring the applications of blockchain to everyday life because he believes that blockchain can make the world a more fair and better place. As an AppWorks Fellow, he is responsible for guiding founders to think about blockchain and providing insights on blockchain-related investment deals. Before AppWorks, he led his previous team to build more than 10 dapps, including famous games in Taiwan such as 柚子打魚 and Shrimp.Finance. Within a month of launching these games, they had amassed over NT$ 100M (~US$ 3.5M) in transactions. His favorite pastime is traveling with his grandma, and his ultimate goal is to persuade her to buy Bitcoin!

Check out what Xixi has to say about blockchain and NFTs.

#NFTevolution

I started to learn how to write smart contracts in 2016, and learned the entire logic of ERC-20 for tokens and ERC-721 for NFTs. While I was learning about NFTs, I realized that the combination of NFTs with video games was very fitting. In video games, the treasure and equipment you collect becomes virtual assets as NFTs. And the process of using smart contracts to exchange items was very efficient on the blockchain.

At the end of 2018, I designed and created a zombie video game, integrating the concept of playing and drawing cards and packs. Within a pack were 3 NFTs with zombies on them. As a player, the more cards with zombies you collect, the higher your score, and the more tokens you can ultimately earn. From this game, I got connected to other game manufacturers and publishers who were also interested in creating virtual game assets through NFTs. We all had the same idea -- NFTs can bring more meaning and value to the players.

However at the time, many people in the market still believed that tokens and games were riddled with fraud. Since the lifecycle of video games can be short, many traditional gaming companies in the end didn’t find it worthwhile to learn how to integrate NFTs or blockchain into their games.

While the nature of NFTs hasn’t changed, the market has evolved. People’s curiosities are growing, more applications are being developed, and more creators are cropping up. I think now is the right time to start talking to companies about how to integrate NFTs or blockchain into their businesses or games.

#NFTplayground

I think there are many opportunities to start a business these days, and people who want to start one should think about coming to blockchain. Not only is there a huge opportunity but the possibilities are endless. And within blockchain, NFTs currently offer the biggest opportunity. However, it can also pose a new challenge to the team’s endurance, because while easy to obtain traction and users with NFTs, the challenge lies in retaining them.

Similar to other blockchain applications in the past few years, when a new concept is invented, it’ll be flushed with many early users. However, because the surrounding infrastructure wasn’t in place, it was difficult for founders to make valuable extensions or applications. And many of these users don’t actually care about these blockchain products and they are only trying to leverage the ecosystem to make a quick buck. Once they earn all that they can, they will move on to another project.

Right now working on NFTs, you can collect a lot of data in a short amount of time and also make some income to keep you afloat. Founders should seize this opportunity to understand these users, then modify and optimize both their products and mentality to retain them.

Since there’s no geographical restriction on blockchain, I would encourage founders to look beyond your country and region in expanding your NFT products. Also, since blockchain is closely related to finance, if you don’t have a good pricing strategy (or token economics) for your NFT products, the prices might fluctuate greatly. You need to be prepared and remind your users of the risks, otherwise you’ll ultimately get scolded!!

#NFTera

This year, I finally consider myself an official NFT collector. I pay special attention to NFTs with contemporary significance, such as Hashmasks. It signals to the public that NFTs are not just for collecting but that game mechanics can also be applied to interact with users. If we look back ten years from now I’m confident to say that the project that really brought the NFT wave in 2021 would be Hashmasks.

In addition to veteran projects like Hashmasks, other collections I care a lot about are related to Metaverse, such as The Sandbox. I believe that the world will become more and more decentralized and virtual. It is very likely that the next generation will be immersed in a virtual world like Ready Player One, so I am also very optimistic about NFTs in digital worlds like The Sandbox.

The possibilities are endless when it comes to NFTs. Right now, few NFTs are connected with our daily lives. For example, I bought a Hashmask. If I want to show it in my apartment, I might still need to print it out. In the future, how will we connect NFTs to the physical world? I believe they can be applied in many ways, including frames, wallets, cars, house deeds, leases, etc. These products in daily life can be combined with NFTs. We just haven’t opened our imagination yet. It’s hard to imagine that only 20 years ago we were having a hard time believing in the power of the internet.

The development of science and technology not only relies on infrastructure, but also the user's learning curve. The world needs to talk about blockchain more, so that everyone will gradually become familiar with it and it’ll continue to evolve.

If you're a founder working in blockchain or NFTs, welcome to apply to AppWorks >> https://bit.ly/3w0WyIl

みりははな姉さんと仲良くしたいのですが、やり方を間違えていつも叱られちゃう。Miri wants to be friends with Hana. But Miri is always scolded by Hana because of her wrong way.

Blog: https://sisinmaru.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maruhanamogu/

みりは悪さしてはな姉さんに叱られちゃう。
Miri plays tricks and is often scolded by Hana.

Blog: https://sisinmaru.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maruhanamogu/

เข้ามาช่วยแท้ๆกลับโดนด่า Came to help, but got scolded instead.